Direct answer: The famous line “Hell is other people” is from Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1944 existentialist play No Exit (French: L’enfer, c’est les autres). It is spoken by the character Garcin near the end of the play and has been widely interpreted as illustrating how our self-image is shaped and constrained by others’ gaze and judgments. Context and nuance:

• In No Exit, three deceased characters are trapped together in a single room for eternity. The line emerges as Sartre’s provocative expression of how interpersonal perception can become a source of torment, since each person’s gaze and judgment can define and constrain one’s sense of self. However, Sartre’s broader philosophy is more nuanced: interpersonal perception is a crucial element of being-for-others, but not the only source of existential anxiety, and he also emphasizes freedom, responsibility, and the possibility of authentic relation even within that gaze. This distinction is often lost in common misreadings that claim relationships are inherently Hellish in every moment.
• The line has been frequently quoted in popular culture as a blanket statement about all human interactions. In context, Sartre intended to highlight a specific dynamic: the way being seen by others can feel like a jailer who assigns you a fixed identity, rather than an absolute verdict on all human connection. This is why many commentators emphasize the distinction between “Hell is other people” and “Hell is the way we are judged by others” rather than implying universal hostility in all social relations. For a fuller reading, see discussions of No Exit and Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, where he analyzes the look, objectification, and the “for-itself” and “for-others” modes of existence.